May 26, 2007

Twelve million illegal immigrants later, we are now living in a nation
that is beset by people who are suicidal maniacs and want to kill
countless innocent men, women and children around the world. We're sitting here now with essentially
open borders.

Beset by suicidal maniacs. Kind of sounds like America under the Bush administration. Or maybe Iraq under the Maliki administration.

Seriously, what kind of mind produces a declaration like that? Clearly, a mind not living any kind of recognizable reality. "Beset" is a word that means attacked on all sides, hemmed in, assailed, surrounded. Almost six years ago, the United States was attacked by suicidal terrorists, some of whom had overstayed their visas. It was a horrific event--but does that really suggest to any rational person that in 2007 we are beset by suicidal maniacs?

Consider Thompson's own 12 million illegal immigrant figure. There were 19 September 11 terrorists. Let's be generous and suppose that the handful of people like the folks in Lackawana, Columbus, and elsewhere are indeed suicidal maniacs, and that all of them are in the country illegally. Let's suppose we've either been attacked by or have stopped attacks by 50 such people. 50 out of 12 million: that means that 0.0004% of illegal immigrants are Thompson's suicidal maniacs. To do this math is to expose the hateful absurdity of Thompson's claim. Not even Tommy Tancredo is so unhinged.

The statement comes from the mind of a man unafraid to demagogue the immigration issue, to play upon crypto-racist fears of immigrant hoards swarming over our "essentially open borders" and marauding lawless throughout the land. Its hysterical tone, its militaristic imagery, its nativist rhetoric, its utter disregard of the facts and its deployment of the worst kind of stereotypes say much about the actor who uttered it.

May 25, 2007

Obama, Clinton and Dodd: good for you. These three senators voted against the cave-in-to-Bush Iraq war funding bill. The bad news is that there were only 11 other senators--and only 8 other Democrats--who did so. Here are the courageous 14:

Boxer (D-CA)Burr (R-NC)Clinton (D-NY)Coburn (R-OK)Dodd (D-CT)

Enzi (R-WY)Feingold (D-WI)Kennedy (D-MA)Kerry (D-MA)Leahy (D-VT)

Obama (D-IL)Sanders (I-VT)Whitehouse (D-RI)Wyden (D-OR)

And here is the hall of shame, the Democrats who voted to give Bush a blank check to continue his splendid little war:

There are some unsurprising entries in this list, and some that really hurt. Sherrod Brown, Carl Levin, Jim Webb and Jon Tester: ouch. If these men won't stand up to the President, it's time to find some who will.

I'm trying to keep telling myself that it's the Republicans who bear primary responsibility for keeping the war going. They do--but the Democrats who bear primary responsibility for stopping it.

This is disorienting, to say the least. I've watched it repeatedly trying to assess how much of her mien is staged and how much is genuine.

During the height of (Bill) Clinton impeachment madness, it was common for pundits to remark Bill's ability to "compartmentalize" the various demands and pressures upon him. This ability was either a testament to the man's internal strength and discipline or evidence of borderline psychosis, depending on one's politics. But perhaps Bill is not the only Clinton who has this skill.

Assume for a moment that the relaxed casualness being displayed in this video is a real part of Hillary Clinton, just as real as the cautious and calculating part of her. That encourages me somehow (as I'm sure it was calculated to do). Still, I wonder why she has to compartmentalize. Is the incapable of synthesis? If she ever finds a way to blend what she shows in this video with the carefully triangulating side of her, she will be a much more appealing candidate and possibly unstoppable in '08.

May 24, 2007

The indispensable Ron Gunzburger seems pretty sure about when Newt Gingrich will announce his candidacy:

Gingrich will announce his candidacy on September 27, 2007, the 13th anniversary of when he first unveiled the Contract with America campaign in 1994. His website even has a prominent countdown clock running towards that date.

Hmmm. If Gunzburger is right, it will be an uncharacteristic backwards look by Gingrich, who used to consider himself something of a futurist, and whose website is subtitled "Winning the Future." Gingrich has, however, updated his Contract on with America, as follows (with my commentary):

To achieve this future we will:

I.

Defend America and our allies from those who would
destroy us. To achieve security, we will develop the intelligence,
diplomatic, information, defense, and homeland security systems and
resources for success.

While this phrase seems bland enough--what Presidential candidate wouldn't want to "develop" those "systems"?--the last five words of the first sentence give the game away. It's us or them, kill or be killed, you're either with us or you're with the terrorists. Seems to me I've heard this somewhere before.

II.

Transform the Social Security system into personal
savings accounts that will enable every worker to have higher
retirement incomes from their own work and avoid the need for financial
support from their children.

Gingrich is nothing of not ambitious, seeking as he is to gut the signature program of The New Deal, greatly enrich the financial services industry, and encourage people to bank their retirement with whatever company may emerge as the Enron of the 2010's.

III.

Recenter on the Creator from Whom all our liberties
come. We will insist on a judiciary that understands the centrality of
God in American history and reasserts the legitimacy of recognizing the
Creator in public life.

Atheists need not apply for federal judgeships. Newt hopes the religious right won't give him too hard a time for his messy sex life.

IV.

Establish patriotic education for our children and
patriotic immigration for new Americans. To achieve this, we will
renew our commitment to education about American citizenship based on
American history and an understanding of the Founding Fathers and the
core values of American civilization. We will insist that both our
children and immigrants learn the key values and key facts of American
history as the foundation of their growth as citizens.

In fact, this prescription differs hardly at all from current citizenship requirements, but given the immigration hysteria the day, it will play well with the rubes who themselves don't know the key facts of American history.

V.

Meet the triple economic challenges of an explosion
in scientific and technological knowledge, an increasingly competitive
world market, and the rise of China and India by implementing:

1. A new system of civil justice to reduce the
burden of lawsuits and to incentivize young people to go into
professions other than the law.

3. Math and science learning equal to any in the
world and educating enough young Americans to both discover the science
of the future and to compete successfully in national security and the
economy with other well-educated societies.

4. Investing in the scientific revolutions that are
going to transform our world—particularly in energy, space, and the
environment.

5. Transforming health care into a 21st Century
Intelligent Health System that improves our health while lowering costs
dramatically. In the process, American health care will become our
highest value export and foreign exchange earning sector.

"A new system of civil justice"; trial by jury is just soooo 18th century. And it's OK to invest in space and energy and the environment, but surely not biotech, cuz that might lead to embryonic stem cell research, cloning, and human/animal hybrids (and we surely wouldn't want that). Now this new health system: could we lower costs dramatically by eliminating for-profit health insurance? Nah . . . .

VI.

Work to include every American in a system of
patriotic stewardship so every person has a real opportunity to pursue
happiness as their Creator endowed. Prepare for the aging of the baby
boomers and their children so we can have active healthy aging with the
best quality of life, the longest period of independent living, and the
greatest prosperity. We will:

1. Develop a system in which those who wish to stay
economically active are encouraged and incentivized to do so because
active people live longer and healthier, have a greater opportunity to
pursue happiness, and are less of a burden on their fellow citizens;

2. Develop a system of independent living and
assisted living that increases the years in which people can be on
their own and in most cases enables people to live their entire lives
with freedom and dignity;

3. Develop a new model of quality long-term care in
which both the care and the quality of life are compatible with a
twenty-first century American expectation of progress and innovation;

4. Use the new technologies and new scientific
knowledge to turn disabilities into capabilities and change government
regulations and programs to help every American achieve the fullest
possible ability to pursue happiness.

No more retirement for you, grandpa. You'll work til you're 80 regardless of the state of your health, and like it.

VII.

Change the mindset of big government in Washington
by replacing bureaucratic public administration with Entrepreneurial
Public Management so government can operate with the speed,
effectiveness, and efficiency of the information age.

Oh boy. Government just like FEMA and the VA.

VIII.

Balance the federal budget and insist on a lean
government, low tax, low interest rate economy to maximize growth in a
competitive world.

So lemme see: we're going to balance the budget but not raise taxes. Guess that means we cut spending. I'd love to see him say how.

IX.

Insist on congressional reform to make the legislative branch responsive to the needs of the 21st century.

Gotta get rid of that pesky oversight function that just introduces inefficiencies into government operations.

X.

Ensure an election process that is honest,
accountable, accurate, and free from the threat of illegal votes or
subsequent litigation.

Translation: disenfranchised voters will have no recourse to the courts.

Finding maddening and amusing Bush quotes is like shooting fish you-know-where, but this particular fish jumped out at me:

Why is he at large? 'Cause we haven't got him, yet, Jim. That's
why. And he's hiding. And we're looking. And we will continue to look
until we bring him to justice. We've brought a lot of his buddies to
justice, but not him. That's why he's still at large.

(Responding to a question about why Osama bin Laden has not yet been captured.)

What do you suppose will happen first: OJ finds the real killer, or Bush finds Osama?

May 23, 2007

John Edwards has repeated his claim that there is no such thing as the "global war on terror." He's out there with Kucinich, Gravel and Biden on this, but Clinton and Obama--the putative frontrunners--are still afraid to face facts. A point, then, for Edwards.

It's Wednesday, and you know what that means: time for Drinking Liberally in Northwest Ohio. The group meets at Manhattan's, 1516 Adams Street, at 7:30. Alas, I won't be there (unless the auditions I'm running end early) but I know that the rest of the group will carry on (in both senses) just fine without me.